scott chasse

Art, art, baby. Greenpoint Gallery Night is happening tonight (9/12), and it’s going to be a party. Rain or shine, gallery doors are opening from 7 to 10pm to let all the world wander through, enjoy art, and nibble some fine cheeses.

Put on your walking shoes, come grab a map, and join the party! Greenpoint Gallery Night is back in full force this Friday (9/12), free & open to the public, from 7-10pm. (rain or shine!)

Two local gallery directors, Lia Post of Fowler Project Space and Scott Chasse of Calico, have teamed up to organize GGN. Both of them love Greenpoint, so GGN is part of their labor of love to shed light on Greenpoint’s exceptional galleries, art organizations, and businesses that feature artwork.

Come meander through tree-lined streets, marvel at the amazing views of Manhattan across the East River, and sample local bars, restaurants, and shops as you follow the map to each participating location in this unique part of Brooklyn.

Greenpointers are going places this summer—all of the gallery places, and we’re taking you with us. Who are the people behind the lively GP art scene? How do they like their coffee? Where do they hang out? We’ve got the scoop right here. This week, we walked through the maze that is the old Greenpoint Terminal Building at 67 West Street to Scott Chasse’s gallery and wood shop space on the 2nd floor, called Calico. Continue reading →

Not sure if you’ve noticed but cats are everywhere! Big cats, little cats – they are the new spirit animal of this here Brooklyn life. It’s because they are the coolest – even cooler than hipsters. It’s nothing new; Ancient Egyptians sweat the shit out of cats, too.

16th Century Cat Art

Maybe we idolize them because we know if they had a choice they wouldn’t participate in our fur ball schemes. Did you see this? 500 Years ago cats were depicted wearing futuristic jetpacks in old drawings. I know my cat would NOT like a jetpack, or a tiara.

It was like gallery night all over again in Greenpoint, with five art shows opening last Friday. Instead of reviewing each show individually, I decided to play a little game. I asked at least one artist from each show the same question: “What does your work have to do with the title of the show?” They answered in one sentence or phrase.

About 30 or so young Greenpointers lazed around Brouwerij Lane (78 Greenpoint Ave) last Thursday, drinking free craft beer from plastic cups and, time to time, gazing at pictures of cats and meme-inspired captions scrawled on canvases.

Artist Scott Chasse, creator of “OMG Webcats,” casually bearded, wearing a loose, unbuttoned shirt, popped around the room. Is there a hidden message to these trite, pop-culture images that have been art-ified?

Chasse says it’s more about the craft than any hard-to-discern message. ”It’s not trying to make anyone think too hard. Yet it took a lot of thought into it to make it that way,” he said. Chasse, who lives and works in Greenpoint (he runs the Calico gallery at 67 West Street), aims to create images that impress without challenging.

“I don’t want anybody to feel as though it’s inaccessible or that you can’t understand it,” he added. Continue reading →

A great Greenpoint gallery called Calico Brooklyn opened this past year and contributed 10 amazing art shows that represented over 50 local artists in our art community. It was a lot of fun to go to the shows, see inspiring work, mingle with talented people and drink free beer. But organizing and installing art shows isn’t free and the first season was funded out of pocket by gallerist Scott Chasse, who also organized the Greenpoint Gallery night.

This gentleman is contributing a lot of his time and resources for the art culture in our neighborhood. For season 2, which will begin in September, with plans to produce another 10 shows, he is asking for the community to help him raise $5000. He has already raised $4,200 and has 1 day to go. Help get him to his goal and look forward to some really fun Friday art nights.

There are tons of great “perks” for donating, but I do recommend donating at the $250 level because you will receive an original piece of artwork by artists who have kindly donated their work to the gallery’s fundraiser who normally sell it for way more money. That’s not a donation – thats an investment in artwork!

When I previewed Calico Brooklyn’s show titled Born Again, featuring the works of Thomas Buildmore, Allison Maletz, and Charles Wilkin, it was easy to find the theme of reuse and reinvention in collage artist Wilkin’s enlarged pigment stained postcard prints and Buildmore’s drippy spraypaint floral still lifes, but Maletz’s sound installation called Utility Purgatory, outfitted with a telephone and surrounded by her watercolor mold paintings was harder to discern. That is, unless we consider the post-Mayan apocalyptic experience referenced by Curator Scott Chasse, which he described as “very similar to the pre-Mayan apocalypse, only we are able to celebrate the afterlife in real-time.”

When I asked Chasse what inspired Born Again he said, “I understand that appropriation and reuse of images, ideas, materials, etc is nothing new, but I think that looking at the works by these three artists as a form of “rebirth” gives a fresh, slightly different way of experiencing what is being presented.”

Allison Maletz "Utility Purgatory" Audio Installation

Sitting on a rotary phone on hold with the telephone company for so long that mold grows on the walls would leave anyone dreaming of the apocalypse, or at least the reinvention of customer service tactics.

Maletz explained that, “these services exist in theory to improve our lives, yet are rendered useless as all the various “please hold” messages loop endlessly, leaving the audience completely impotent.” But Maletz doesn’t take “hold” for an answer and presents this experience in a new way with “a new meaning, so that we might all step back as outsiders looking in, to observe and perhaps even enjoy this well known and frustrating experience.” She went on to say that she made “the Mold Paintings specifically to go with Utility Purgatory. At their core, both works are about what can grow out of neglect.” Continue reading →

Yes, there is a stupid blizzard, but a walk in the snow if fun, and so is a walk in the snow to an art show with amazing work, friends and drinks to warm you up!

I recommend this show for tonight, Friday February 8, 2013:

Born Again is opening tonight at Calico Brooklyn (67 West St) from 7-9pm and features the artwork of Thomas Buildmore, Allison Maletz & Charles Wilkin. The show follows the theme of reuse and recontextualization in the work itself but also in the new techniques and styles presented by artists.

It will be so moving that you might begin trembling and speaking in tongues.